[Dragaera] Rynend and Dathaani (spoilers for Tiassa, of course)

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: Maximilian Wilson <wilson.max at gmail.com>

> On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 12:50 PM, Jerry Friedman
> <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>  wrote:
> >> From: Maximilian Wilson <wilson.max at gmail.com>
> >
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> >> I  don't think the Jhereg were actually expecting a  representative of
> >> the Empire  to appear instantly--
> >
> >  I can't imagine why not.  It's a crisis.
> 
> It's not a "Condition Red" kind  of crisis where seconds matter,
> though. We see that the Empress is willing to  hold off on locating
> Vlad, first until the Countess can return to the palace,  and then
> until after the "false location" ploy has completed.

True, but there are reasons to wait in those situations.  When she has the 
audience with Norathar and Cawti, she doesn't want to waste any time on 
ceremony.

> The Jhereg  were
> probably expecting to be in and out in under a minute,

Quite unreasonably.  They know Vlad's hard to kill these days.

> and  it's
> plausible that they were expecting the Empress's negotiation team  in
> the throne room to be somewhat slower than a SWAT team. Even if  they
> did get caught though, the only ones at risk for the hit are  hired
> thugs.

And the Jhereg witness, who will obviously have been the source of the 
coordinates.   (Apparently they can be confident that she--I assume--will be 
able to get the coordinates off the Orb and transmit them psionically without 
anyone noticing, including the Athyra who's observing the spell and whatever 
wizard is going to get the silver tiassa.)   And Norathar busted Rynend and 
Dathaani anyway.  They must not have known she'd have sources of information or 
use them, but on the other hand they could expect that the Empire would search a 
lot harder if Vlad had been killed.

Actually, you'd think the Empress might have good enough sources in the Jhereg 
to know who the Council gave the job of killing Vlad to, even without Norathar.  
(This might have been what Philip Hart said in the archives--I forget, and 
there's a lot to look through.)

> The real risk for the Jhereg as a whole (getting caught  faking
> a Jenoine invasion)

As a whole?  I thought the Council didn't know about this plan.  Though they 
might have trouble getting investigators to believe that.

> is essentially orthogonal in my mind.

Not in mine.  If the Empire sees that someone in the Jhereg made use of the 
supposed invasion, and the invasion amounts to nothing, they might get 
suspicious.

> >  As Dathaani sees it, what should the Empress do?  She should waste no time,  
>but
> > send some representative who Vlad will trust.  Morrolan and Aliera  are the
> > obvious choices.  If they're too in disgrace, as Louis Eastman  speculated, 
>then
> > she would send some other Good Guy.  The conversation  she wants is, "Vlad, 
>the
> > Jenoine are about to break through and we think  your silver tiassa might 
>stop
> > them."  "Since it's you who's telling me,  okay, here it is."
> 
> I can see where you're coming from with this but I  don't agree on the
> necessity of sending a trusted personal friend to do the  negotiating,
> or that Zerika would see it as a necessity.

Wouldn't Vlad be extremely suspicious if a stranger showed up?  He might not 
wait around to see the signets.

> Nevertheless I admit  that
> Morrolan and Aliera (if they can be trusted to appear in  public
> together, which they probably can't) would have even more  comic
> potential than the scene that actually happened. Especially if  the
> course of negotiations included Vlad getting eaten by Lady Teldra  to
> stop him from getting eaten by a Mortanti weapon, and Aliera  rolling
> her eyes with a "been there, done that" look.

"Being eaten by Lady Teldra is /completely/ different from being eaten by 
Pathfinder."

"How would you know?"

Jerry Friedman